#and the characterization is terrible and feels forced and weird

[sheliesshattered]

the trouble with trying to rewrite this particular episode is that the episode, as aired, is just so bad that it's physically painful to rewatch

[starlit-mansion]

I think the worst thing help wanted 2 will be is nothing but fanservice, and the fact that ruin was all fanservice gives me. Little hope actually

[ewingstan]

Figuring out what dnd class each undersider is can be fun enough. But we can get sillier with it. I propose that we instead start arguing about which playbook each undersider would be as characters in a game of Most Trusted Advisors by @thehorizonmachine.

The game is about rollplaying a group of rich assholes on a monarch's privy council: enacting overly complicated schemes, trying to appease your liege's insane whims, and attempting to avoid getting killed by the inquisition. Characters get a list of privileges they can do for free as well as actions that give them points (ducats) determined by what tropes their playbook is riffing off of—for instance, the treacherous Blackguard can always "emerge from the shadows" or "sharpen their knife meaningfully", and gets a ducat whenever they make an overcomplicated plan or wear a terrible disguise. Its terrific fun, and my go-to game for oneshots. Y'all should play it. Lets imagine if we forced these fuckers into it.

Brian

While the "no fun allowed" aspect of his later characterization tends towards the Hierophant, I'd say given how he's both the most practical and most mercenary undersider, The Treasurer is the best choice.

The Treasurer's whole thing is combining a get-rich-quick schemer with the long-suffering voice-of-reason archetype, and that fits Brian "trying to be a responsible older brother in a financially stable position by punching twelve year olds" Laborn perfectly. The Treasurer "can always freely roll his eyes at tomfoolery" (Brian trying-to-hard-to-be-a-parent Laborn), gets a ducat when he "runs into someone who drives [him] insane and tells the table why" (Brian introduces-shadowstalker-as-a-problem Laborn) and gets a ducat when he "personally suffers as the result of another players scheming" (Brian suffered-more-than-Christ Laborn). Give him points in Skulk and Shadow and some titles that help with combat to complement his powers and background, and you have Duke Brien the Gruesome of House Laborn, Royal Treasurer, Knight Marischal, Seneschal to the Royal Household, and Adeptus Major of the Hermetic Order.

Aisha

While the Blackguard's whole assassin-in-the-shadows thing is a pretty good match for Imp's powers, I feel like I'd be doing her a disservice giving her anyone but The Alchemist. Its the playbook that's all about being a weirdo court wizard who may or may not have actual magic, but who will definitely try to convince you that speaking to them before 10 AM risks unleashing one of the daemon's they've binded to help serve the kingdom.

The Alchemist is archetypically most similar to a Tinker (Leet is definetly in the Hermetic Order), but the playbook's abilities to cause small unexplained mischiefs and make people question themselves certainly lends itself well to a Stranger. Their privilege to "spout obscure technical jargon" fits with her determination to get good at literary reference-based one-liners, and their ability to declare people cursed fits well with her crusade to scare off/torture to the point of suicide any enemies or would-be despots. The playbook's tendency towards unexplained occult behavior seems in line with Aisha making dolls of Alec to keep around all the time. Also being incentivized to "egregiously violate a moral, religious, or cultural taboo" is just part of being a youngest child. I'm open to other choices, but Madame A'Ishah the Improbable of House Vasil, Royal Alchemist, Queen's Chemist, Archsorcerer, and Master of the Castle Ravens feels like a winner to me.

Alec

The Blackguard looks like it would fit with its focus on snide comments and bad lies, and The Alchemist would potentially justify his powers while satifying Alec's whole "rude bitch who only half knows/cares how to fit into polite society" thing. But I'm gonna take the wildcard option and fit him in as The Lover.

The romantic "let them eat cake" figure might not seem a great match for Mr. Vasil (ooh weird feel no not calling him that again), yet nevertheless there's a lot of fun tragic irony to be wrung out of it. Have the former Heartbroken who dies before his odd little situationship with Aisha can become anything be the loverboy, it'll be barrels of fun.

The playbook starts with a high Appease score, which you'd have to have coming out of the Vasil household. They're incentivized to "share a moment of physical or emotional intimacy with someone," and while Alec probably wouldn't seek out such a moment, God does he need to have some intimacy he isn't forcing someone to give him. They have an option to take a title that lets them release angry swans whenever they want to, I know that's not really related to anything Alec can do in canon but c'mon he'd love that. They get a ducat whenever they "say something insensitive without meaning it to be" which is pretty much his and Taylor's whole relationship. The playbook's theming fits the "I'm disconnected from all this and not taking it as seriously as you think I should" thing that he's trying to project with his costume, and as a result the aesthetics are a natural match. Honestly you probably wouldn't need to change him from how he dresses in canon. Maybe put him in one of those fancy Victorian nightgowns iota draws him in. Convergent evolution.

Also I think the "You can always coquettishly bat your eyelashes at someone" privilege just fits. Dollboys can have coquettishly long eyelashes to bat at people. Prince-Consort Alexander the Hijink-Prone of House Vasil, Royal Lover, Court Jester, Keeper of the Swans, and Junior Karian Dynast is ready to take a depression nap lounge luxuriously while his fellow councilors make their plans.

Rachel

A natural fit for The Marshal, the overly aggressive general. While the playbook is meant more for a proud and hawkish thumb of a person (think TF2's Soldier) than a traumatized and paranoid homeless girl, there's more than enough overlap to make the match. I could just list off the actions that give the Marshall a ducat:

"Run into someone you wounded in a duel, and tell the table why": has taken a chunk of nearly every hero in the bay

"Walk directly into danger, knowingly and fearlessly": walking into Khepri's field of influence because she trusts her too much

"Kill or maim one of your enemies in a fair fight" see point one

"Overcomplicate a simple plan by going in all guns blazing": does not like plans more complicated than "point your dogs at the problem"

"Overreact massively to a perceived slight on your honour": literally the first thing she does on-page

Overall, I feel pretty confident in my pick for Marchioness Raquel the Bitchin' of House Lindt, Royal Marshal, Knight of the Order, Commander of the Hussars, and Member of the Equestrian Order.

Lisa

A bit trickier to narrow down. I could see an argument for how she's fits in as an Alchemist; the ability to spend a ducat to have a vision fits with her powers, and she certainly lives her life as if she gets a ducat whenever she "egregiously violates a moral religious, or cultural taboo." And by Ward she might have been long-suffering long enough to be a Treasurer, which would fit in with her tendency to manage everything.

But ultimately it comes down to the tropes she's playing off of, and she seems much more like a reconstruction of the duplicitous-second-to-the-big-bad archetype that The Blackguard is based on than anything else. She's certainly making frequent use of that playbook's "disparage someone's intelligence" and "announce 'I have a cunning plan!' " privileges. The Blackguard's ability to spend a ducat to learn a secret is probably the closest we could get to her powers (coupled with some more titles that let the players learn shit they shouldn't know), and its abilities related to thin disguises works well with Lisa's whole "subsumed by the mask, nothing behind it she's just a collection of masks" thing. Give her more points in Survey and Disdain and Baroness Elisabethe the Tale-Teller of House Wilbourn, Royal Blackguard, Postmaster General, Lord Spymaster, and certainly not Silent Watcher of the Skychamber is ready for a day at court.

Taylor

On the one hand, her tendency to be much more judgy than the other undersiders suggests The Hierophant. And maybe that would work if I was specifically making Weaver. But for the Warlord of the Boardwalks I actually think I'm going to assign her The Liege: the GM-equivalent who plays the monarch the rest of the players are advising/serving the whims of. They're the one whose "the lynchpin of the story, the instigator and motivating factor for everything that happens," and if there's one thing about Taylor its that she's very good at making herself a lynchpin. Also the book advises the GM/Liege to "cause new problems and to complicate simple situations," and that seems like a pretty good way to describe Taylor's tenure as an Undersider. Admittedly, she might not fit the suggestion that "your Liege should be the least qualified person for the job in the realm, perhaps the world," but nonetheless. Have her play either as a Have-at-Them or a Powder-Keg and you're ready to give the Royal Council the headache of their lives. "Queen Taylor what do you mean you want us to accompany you in dueling Lord Slash and his brigands, we have armies for this." "Queen Taylor why do we have to break you out of the Holy Protectorate, what do you mean you killed the Pope." "Queen Taylor the second coming has arri—what do you mean you want to declare war on the resurrected Christ."

[cat-downthestreet]

hey, listen! this is a rant post about neurodivergent characters in Genshin and my frustration with the fandom's reading comprehension skills. if you're in a bad place or just don't like angry rants, please don't force yourself and go read something else instead. <3

Okay, so, I watched this video recently, and let's just say, I have some thoughts.

https://youtu.be/tYK3297p4rk?si=eMaf8NF57HFlUhfd

This isn't just a Xiao problem- the entire fandom is terrible at characterization. The example that makes me the most angry is the mischaracterization of neurodivergent characters.

Take Alhaitham for example. He's often seen as rude and narcissistic by the fandom- which is especially apparent in Haikaveh content, where people portray him as straight up abusive.

You wanna know why this makes me so mad? The supposedly narcissistic and rude traits Alhaitham has are actually just exaggerated symptoms of autism.

Like, come ON, people. Don't skip dialogue. Better yet, go read through his story quest again. He straight up tells someone who sees him as narcissistic that he doesn't see others as less than himself. Also, his voicelines basically confirm this- he's extremely socially inept and he doesn't care. He has difficulty showing emotions as readily as his peers- that doesn't mean he doesn't have them, just that he expresses them differently. He comes across as rude because he doesn't get that people don't like to hear what they're doing wrong, and he probably doesn't care because that's not his problem. If people don't like how blunt he is, that's their problem. At least, that's how I think he views the world.

And like, there are SO many hints that he's autistic. He wears sound-blocking earpieces, for crying out loud. Hell, the ENTIRE REASON why he helped out during the Archon quest was because he didn't want his life to change too much. Preferring routine is an autistic trait.

And the worst part is, when I talk about this outside of neurodivergent groups, people tell me I'm wrong and that he couldn't be autistic DESPITE THOSE PEOPLE NOT BEING AUTISTIC THEMSELVES.

And I'm not saying that every autistic person relates to Alhaitham, but I certainly do. And I'm actually quite friendly because I'm anxious about being rejected. Alhaitham isn't, and I'm so jealous of him for that. He's living his best life.

Finally, back to the Haikaveh thing... Alhaitham isn't abusive. He doesn't say horrible things to Kaveh, and the one example of him doing that I could find, he immediately backtracked and subtly tried to make Kaveh feel better. Hell, Alhaitham doesn't even actually care about making sure Kaveh pays rent. He says it as a joke, but because he's autistic and his tone of voice doesn't give that away as well, he's portrayed as abusive and misunderstood as narcissistic. Y'all just don't like neurodivergent people and it shows.

Yes, neurodivergent includes Xiao. PTSD is often viewed as a form of neurodivergency, and there are many MANY characters in Genshin that have PTSD or some other form of neurodivergence. Yet people refuse to see them as such and mischaracterize them as "edgy," "narcissistic," "unapproachable," "weird," and the like. Yet none of these characters are any of those things.

You wanna know the true narcissists? The true edgelords? The actually rude people? Might I direct your attention to Scaramouche, Childe, and Dottore, whom everyone makes out to be as misunderstood pathetic little meow meows that need love.

Reminder that only two of those three are actually redeemable, and one is STILL an edgelord who is more rude than Alhaitham could ever be, while the other is a certified insane person with a weird set of morals.

(Side note: I love Scaramouche and Childe as characters. I'm just tired of people acting like they aren't worse than the autistic characters. Scaramouche is extremely rude, but he's trying to be better as Wanderer thanks to Nahida's help. He has severe PTSD, and Childe does, too. But both of them are actually messed up and have done horrible things, yet people portray them as better and more in need of love than the characters with unlikable (read: neurodivergent) traits.)

Don't even get me started on how people portray Kokomi, Sucrose, Fischl, Diluc, Zhongli, Cyno, Furina, Neuvillette, and Albedo. Especially that last one- I WILL get mad if one more person tries to tell me he's just emotionless and rude.

Also, if anyone is wondering where I've seen people misunderstanding these characters, it's mostly on Hoyolab site discussions. There's one too many posts talking about how "rude" and "annoying" these characters are.

With Alhaitham especially, I see many people writing him as abusive in Haikaveh content. I see people arguing about the ship being toxic because Alhaitham is "abusive," "unfeeling," and "cruel." Even people who like the ship portray him as such. And I've seen too many people comparing him to Dr. Ratio, who is literally just a narcissist who views others as beneath him. Don't get me wrong, I understand the comparison. It's just... very obvious that people skipped dialogue during Genshin's Archon and story quests.

And it's frustrating because I've been misunderstood in the exact same way. I've been called "rude," "annoying," and "unfeeling" in the past and it's screwed me up. Seeing people do the same thing to a character I so deeply relate to makes me lose confidence in both myself and people around me.

If that's how you view a fictional character with autistic traits, how do you treat real people with the same traits?

Thanks for reading this far. My previous post seemed to get a lot of attention, so I felt more confident about posting my full perspective on this subject. Can any of you think of other characters that have been constantly misunderstood in the fandom? I'd love to hear about it.

[dionysism]

wanna go more in depth for your hatred about tsoa? is it really REALLY inaccurate? im start to get more into greek mythology and many recommended that book to me besides the obvious ones like the actual materials

(btw i love your posts mwa mwa stay hydrated)

sure! yes it is very inaccurate. let me just say though its been like 3 years since i read it and i'm currently out of state so i don't have it on me to skim through but perhaps one day i will reread it just to make a whole masterpost on everything i hate about it. maybe not tho because it was agonizing enough on the first read 💀

also let me put a trigger warning here i will be mentioning sexual assault in this post because it's in the book and i'll be referring to that scene

so i have a lot of issues with it let me try to organize my thoughts... her characterization is my main issue. just terrible. also i feel like her writing is like.... weird or unfitting sometimes. like theres a scene where patroclus (who is like... 11 or 12 at this point maybe younger) says achilles is "still plump with childhood" or something (again probably not the exact quote its been a minute but something similar) which is just not how 11 year olds talk about other 11 year olds? its supposed to be from patroclus' perspective and i just feel like when shes writing him as a kid he still sounds, thinks, and talks like a grown adult. sometimes he doesn't even sound like patroclus he just sounds like madeline miller.

which brings me to her characterization of patroclus in general. just fucking horrific was her inspo troy (2004)? she made him this medic twink who only heals and even when he finally does fight in achilles armor its like he gets kills on pure luck and you're supposed to be shocked. patroclus in the iliad is 1. older than achilles and 2. a great warrior! this is why achilles lets him don his armor in the first place because he KNOWS how good patroclus is on the battlefield. also patroclus has anger and rage of his own! he is not a smol uwu baby don't PISS ME OFF! his kill count crazy. idek where she got the medic thing from there's like one (1) scene in the iliad where patroclus helps an injured solider in the camp but he is most certainly not the medic of the greeks. he's dull in tsoa. he has hardly any personality outside his love for achilles.

next is her thetis. this, i think, enrages me more than anything else. thetis is a character of grief. thetis is a goddess who, for all her power, is ultimately unable to change the fate of her son. she may be a little overbearing at times, but NOTHING like how she is in tsoa. madeline miller makes her a homophobic (?) helicopter abusive mother (i say ? on the homophobia because im not sure if it was homophobia or if she just hated patroclus specifically. if it was homophobia the stupidity of making an ancient greek god homophobic speaks for itself) thetis doesn't even hate patroclus in the iliad, in fact, thetis is the one who preserves his body and keeps it fresh and prevents it from rotting while achilles waits for his new armor and then goes out to fight hector. she tells achilles he could lay there for a year and she would keep him unchanged. in tsoa, she forces them apart, and tells achilles if he does not sleep with deidamia, she will never let him see patroclus again. this is insane to me. thetis would not set her son up for s/a and force him to sleep with someone against his will. and mind you this occurs after she's already stated clearly that thetis is a victim of rape herself. i assume this is madeline miller's way of asserting that achilles has no attraction to women while still being able to have his son in the plot later. this again, is stupid to me. if you want to argue achilles may have been gay, fine, homosexuality was complicated in ancient greece and you could potentially make the argument his sleeping with women was to uphold a reputation but i think it's more accurate that he was probably just attracted to both. however i think you can make him explicitly gay in a retelling without adding sexual assault to his story. i also find this especially distasteful because in actual antiquity achilles is the one committing sexual assault. (if i had a nickel for every time madeline miller made a character who canonically assaults someone else a victim of s/a while removing the fact they commit it themselves from the story i'd have 2 nickels. which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?) in general i find it very weird how madeline, on multiple occasions, demonizes a woman from mythology and makes her into a villain she simply is not. this y'alls "feminist retelling" author? oh okay.. i guess! (her deidama is an antagonist in this too, as a hysterical jealous Other Woman)

i also felt she imposed too many modern standards/heteronormativity onto achilles and patroclus' relationship. like i said with patroclus, making him the weak defenseless healer and achilles the badass warrior. very much giving one is strong and masculine and the other is nurturing and feminine. changing the aspects of their other relationships so its like they've only ever loved eachother and no else which isn't necessary. achilles and patroclus could (and do, in the iliad) sleep with other people and it would not diminish how intense and true their love for each other is!!

over all she sanitized the story, flattened it and butchered all the characters with a sprinkle of fetishization and misogyny on top. the book is frankly boring and underdeveloped too. this is honestly not as in depth of a review as i would like to give but like i said i don't have access to the book at the moment so i just stuck to the core grievances i remember having

(also thank you, you stay hydrated too!! <3)

[blossomthepinkbunny]

Stolas & Loona should have friends

(something I feel would work well for their characters)

I feel like Loona's and Stolas' character would really benefit from giving them friendships. Relationships that could help to humanize them, make them more sympathetic or help to develop/change them as people.

For Loona it makes sense to go into that direction because this huge part of her character is dealing with the fact that she grew up sheltered and never had someone who really cared for her. Blitzø is the first real parental figure she has in her life and she is often pretty cruel to him because she never learned to interact with others who genuinely wanted to be kind to her.

I think giving her more of a social life and potential friendships like we kinda got to see in the Beelzebub episode is something they are working up to with her character, though I find it weird that we didn't really get to see her in the new s2 trailer (or in any of the last 5 episodes for that matter). It seems like Loona wont have any focus on her which is dissapointing because right now her character is in a state where she is still pretty unlikable and comes off as just rude more often.

The show had three good opportunities to give Loona someone to be friends with. First one was Tex which didn't work out because she had a crush on him and even after meeting his girlfriend being defensive and jealous rather than realizing that maybe they'd be better as just friends. Second one could've been Beelzebub (if you ignore the fact that she's the one organizing the pounds for hellhounds) but she is Tex's girlfriend so Loona immediately doesn't like her. And lastly Loona and Octavia, who they were kinda setting up as having a sister-like bond in "Seeing Stars".

But Loona and Octavia have never interacted after that as far as we know. Like I said, Loona basically hasn't shown up in a relevant way for 5 episodes now. It could've been small stuff even. Like maybe in "Western energy" instead of having the stupid nursery subplot it could've just been mentioned that Loona and Octavia are hanging out while Stolas is on his meeting with Stella and Andrealphus. Or just see them chilling together in the background of some episodes.

Giving Loona friends would give her someone she could share her feelings with and that could make her less toxic because she can get her emotions out in a non destructive way. She needs someone who isn't Blitzø, someone who is closer to her in age and someone who will understand her and help her with socializing. And in my opinion that someone shouldn't necessarily be a love interest either. We already have so many romantic/sexual relationships in HB and rarely see relevant friendships which I think is a huge missed opportunity, especially in Loonas case.

And for Stolas, giving him a friend would maybe show more of the sympathetic aspects of his character. Right now I don't like Stolas at all and I don't see a reason to either. He forced Blitzø into a sexual relationship so he can do his job and then starts to whine about Blitzø not loving him back. Knowingly or not, he made great use of hells classist system and basically neglects his daughter as well in the process (though the show will tell you that he actually cares a lot despite us not really seeing that on screen).

What pisses me off most about his character is that they don't acknowledge him being a terrible person. I don't care if he's bad as long as the show doesn't try to woobify him out of nowhere. If they pointed out what he does and he would recieve consequences that aren't treated as unfair or mean i'd like him a lot more because then they could also genuinely show him becoming a better person. A characterization similar to Rex Splode from Invincible would really do wonders for him (I've only watched the show for Invincible so I dont know if/how they move his character forward, but so far I really like it).

Anyways, giving him a friend or something could also help. HB tries to make a big point about people having layers and showing that someone who does harmful stuff can still have sympathetic sides to them. Stolas' problem is, that the only focus he ever gets is in relationships where he is acting bad. I already mentioned how he treats Blitzø and with how hard they're pushing them as a couple they're showing Stolas to be pretty terrible in retrospective. We also don't really get to see how hard he apparently cares for Octavia. Giving him a relationship that shows the sympathetic sides to his character could be done by making his relationship with Octavia be actually good. Like showing them hanging out, actively interacting in positive ways and basically making him a great dad but bad partner sort of guy. Giving him a friend would also work as I said. Maybe Asmodeus could've been that or just a new character. Something that makes him more sympathetic because we get to see a positive side to him with how he cares for this other person.

I really hope they put some focus on Loona again because I kinda care for her and I think dealing with what she has going on could be nice and cute. And for Stolas idk. It might already be too late to make me not dislike him. He is just way too far into being victimized already for me to assume that i will sympathize with him anytime soon.

[xerith-42]

Stop blaming characters for bad writers

Seriously, stop fucking doing this. While this is a post that could certainly be applicable to MANY fandoms, I'm mainly directing this whole rant at my target audience which is mentally ill minecraft obsessed freaks.

If a character is written badly, gets badly fumbled by the creator, or has the ball dropped in regards to their arc in some way, a lot of people will blame the character, as if they're a real conscious person making these decisions. When they aren't. They're a block man literally being controlled by two people who just aren't very good writers and one or both of them are incredibly sexist, kind of racist, ableist, and just bad writers in general.

Yeah, Laurance does some pretty shitty things through out Season 2 of MCD, actively crossing lines he wouldn't have previously crossed. We as fans can cope by saying something something calling, or just saying Laurance is a bad abusive person, but the reality is that the writers wanted to force the series to fit a specific vision and as a result were willing to do anything to get the series to that point. In order to make Aaron the most favorable suitor for Aphmau, her previous suitors need to be out of the picture, or clearly inferior options.

Garroth suffered the out of the picture, being mostly absent outside of a few cutscenes here and there until episode 81 of season 2, but episode 81 is the culmination of the writers goals to make Aarmau happen. By the time Garroth has returned to the series, the damage has already been done. He's not getting the life he wants. And Laurance is written out of the picture as well, but only after being shown to be inferior because Jesson were pushing an agenda.

Laurance didn't deteriorate as a person due to neglect of his physical and mental well being after a severely traumatic experience. He deteriorated as a character because the writers stopped giving as much of a shit about him and instead were using the series as self indulgent fanfiction of alternate versions of themselves. That's not Laurance's fault.

And this applies to any character who was completely fumbled in MyStreet due to this similar focus on wish fulfillment from the writers. Jess has stated that the relationship between Aphmau and Aaron in Phoenix Drop High is reflective of her relationship with Jason, we all know this. This means that any characters who come off as total fucking creeps in that series (namely Gene), are not actually acting on the whims of their own autonomy or desires as characters. They are acting in service of telling a predetermined story that they are retroactively being added into for author fulfillment.

In this regard I fully support fandom cope and say that you should rewrite your little guys to your hearts content. But if you're going to criticize these characters for their actions, don't criticize them. They didn't do anything wrong. All characters are just puppets in service of the story or themes a writer is trying to push. If a character acts in an objectively terrible way, especially a way that isn't in line with their previous characterizations, that is a failing of the writers, not the character.

And I feel like largely a lot of us can and frequently do this. We're actively criticizing Jesson for being terrible low-key bigoted writers all the god damn time, it's like half of the content here. But when we get into character discourse I feel like some people cling onto bad actions of the canon too closely and I've seen more than a few posts presume some pretty terrible interpretations of characters based on these actions. Obviously Laurance is a character I and a lot of others are fixated on so a lot of discourse revolves around him, and it was seeing some... interesting takes on him that prompted me to start writing this post.

But this happens to everyone. Quite personally based on the character I was shown in MyStreet, it feels really weird that Garroth would make an insensitive comment about his brother's weight. Yeah siblings poke fun at each other and often cross lines, but if that was something Zane was seriously insecure about (which it seems like he might be) then it does make Garroth come off as a really insensitive brother, which just doesn't gel with how hard he tries to bond with Zane despite their tense relationship. And I don't think Garroth should be criticized for making those comments.

Whoever wrote those lines (Jess and/or Jason) should be criticized for writing a scene where a character is mocked by their older sibling over a physical insecurity even if said sibling would not normally do that. It's not Travis' fault that Jesson never decided to give him more of a character beyond "funny pervy guy" that's not funny in every anime they've watched until Season 5 of MyStreet. It's unfair to try and say Travis should be scrutinized for his borderline sexual harassment of some characters when it's not his fault that happened, he was written by writers who don't think this sort of behavior isn't all that bad if they make it out for comedy and punch him in the face.

And god dammit it's not Laurance's fault that his jealousy became the most prevalent emotion he felt. Laurance has always been a character to give into his vices and yet fight against them at the same time, it's what makes him compelling. If they were going to pull on those vices in order to make him a less appealing love interest, he never had a chance to really be his own character after a certain point. Because at a certain point in Season 2, Jesson stopped caring about the character they had been writing for over a hundred episodes at that point. They just wanted to canonize their self insert ship and were willing to do anything to get it.

Laurance isn't an abusive angry person who would have killed Aphmau if they got together. He's a flawed character being handled by incredibly flawed writers who are prone to making some of the worst decisions you have ever seen a creator make in regards to their character writing. He was caught in the crossfire of the adoration he received from a very dedicated fanbase, and the creator who would rather pretend he and his previous arc didn't exist for the sake of her fun. It's not Laurance's fault his arc was stilted, jerked around, and ultimately ended with him completely face planting. And yet still reliably dragging his bloodied body up at just the slightest glimmer of hope (Void Paradox).

It's deeply poetic and tragic that I can describe his character in universe and in the meta-textual sense that way, but we should never blame Laurance, or Aaron, or any other characters for things being like this.

They didn't write the show. Jess and Jason did.

[earlgreytea68]

A Note on Olivia's Speech -- Kinda

OMG this is so much babbling but I wrote it all down in case it might be interesting to anyone else who feels vast amounts of guilt over writing about guys all the time??????

When I was a younger writer, I used to write a lot of het. That's what I wrote all through my teenage years and into my early twenties, just tons of traditional male/female romance novels, which honestly was mostly what I read through those years, too (aside from the classics that I was forced to read for my degree in English, which was exactly why I majored in English lol). Even when I started writing fanfiction, which wasn't until my mid-twenties, I wrote het.

But then at one point I started writing m/m love stories, and I never stopped. And I worry a lot about that, like, is this betraying internalized misogyny on my part? Why am I writing about men (and often white men), who get so many of the stories anyway? I should write more about my actual gender identity, which is cisgender woman. But every time I did, it felt so weird and stilted to me. And my motto is that unless I'm writing for money I write makes me happy, so I kept writing m/m fic.

Once, years ago, I went to a presentation at an academic conference where they discussed the phenomenon of cisgender women writing m/m fic. I know this often gets characterized as just some kind of sexual kink, and I just don't think that's what's going on with me, and that presentation noted that cisgender men are the default, so to speak, in our society. And so characters with a cisgender male gender identity are allowed to be blank slates that can be absolutely anything you want. Whereas as soon as you make a character a cisgender female, suddenly there are all these societal pressures on that character. And that did resonate with me, that try as I might I couldn't just change the pronouns of the cisgender men I was writing and ta-da! They were cisgender women! Because there's just so much other baggage that comes with being a cisgender woman that they were freed from if they were cisgender men -- even if I resented that that was the case!

But I've been doing a lot of reading this past year, and not of romance novels, of quote-unquote "serious" novels (an adjective I strenuously do not agree with, as a writer of romance lol). I read Elif Batuman's books (both hilarious but both kind of fell apart about halfway through), I read Checkout 19 (which I pretty much hated), I read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (weird book), I read The Farewell Tour (which surprised me and I liked much more than I'd thought I would). Every one of these books had a cisgender female protagonist (or co-protagonist), and every one of these books had a major plot point where that protagonist has a terrible, unhealthy relationship with an obnoxious cisgender guy. Every. Single. Book. And sometimes it was more than one unhealthy relationship, and sometimes it was more than one female character within the book. Like, you're going along reading about these delightful and interesting adventures these fabulous women are having, then -- bam! they run up against some guy not nearly as interesting as they are and not deserving of their time and then they waste a bunch of their life (and the book) all hung up on him. And I was just like: It's the year 2023, and this is STILL what the female narrative looks like? This???? We can't tell other stories about women that don't revolve around what men do to them???

It's not that these books aren't critiquing that part of society (which I understand is still omnipresent all around us). All of the books are very conscious that the relationships are unhealthy and diminishing the woman (except maaaaybe the relationship in T&T&T, but that book also is really mean to its arguably asexual MC and basically implies that he'll never be of importance in his BFF's life because he doesn't want to have sex with her, so the book had other issues, tbh). Not a single one of those books actually, you know, has any apparent repercussions for the guy in question, who just seems to go on and live their life pretty carefree and the woman whose life they stomped all over is barely a second thought, to us the outside observer. And I'm sure that's also very true to how society works. But, all the same, it was striking to me that, even if critical, THIS WAS STILL EVERY WOMAN'S NARRATIVE. EVERY WOMAN'S NARRATIVE WAS ABOUT SELLING HERSELF SHORT FOR SOME GUY. Can we not imagine better for ourselves????

And so, Idk, I do try to put people of other genders in my m/m fics but when it comes to a character like Olivia, and thinking of what her happy ending looked like, I just could not make myself put her with a guy. And you might say: she could have gone with a woman! And yes! She could have! But I think I am craving female narratives that aren't about romantic and sexual love. Because every narrative I read about a woman is alllll about romantic and sexual love. The woman belittles herself to squeeze herself into the box of romantic and sexual love, cutting off all of the interesting parts of herself because she's been told THAT is the end-all-be-all. But I am a believer in all kinds of love, and how all of those kinds of love can give you a good and well-rounded life, and it's silly to pretend that there's only one type of love and that we should pursue it at all costs to our selves.

And then I think, well, gee, that's hypocritical of me, given that ALL I DO IS WRITE STORIES ABOUT ROMANTIC AND SEXUAL LOVE. But then it occurred to me that in writing them about two cisgender men, it does feel more like a narrative that needs to be told. Men get so many stories...but they don't often get THESE stories. They don't often get the love story. They don't often pursue their romantic love as if it will fulfill their destiny...because society tells men that their destiny has other shapes and sizes beyond who they sleep with. Maybe, I think, the world needs more narratives about guys who just love, unabashedly and deeply and fulfillingly, and THAT'S the narrative. That's the whole story. Just that. The way it so often is for women.

When I think about Olivia, and even as I sit and struggle my way with Megan in the Regency AU sequel, it's like...I want more for them than that. Like, for so long I grew up with exactly the expectation that Olivia talks about, that I needed to find a husband and that was the most important thing about me. And I watch the younger women I know still get that message. I've got a great career, went to good schools, do interesting stuff, and still a shocking number of people want to know why I'm single. What about everything else I can be????? I have great friends and a great family and I honestly like my life. Who can ask for more than that? Like, isn't the most amazing thing that could happen to Megan, especially in the Regency era, is just that she lives the life she wants??? And maybe that means she gets married and maybe it doesn't but it's cool either way and she has the freedom to choose it!

I don't mean to imply that I don't have internalized misogyny, because who knows lol. I also don't mean to imply that women shouldn't get married!!!! I have many cisgender female friends in very happy and healthy heterosexual relationships!!! It's awesome for them and it works for them and it's cool and I love them and the lives they have built for themselves. Lives come in all shapes and sizes, and that's great. But I finished yet another book with yet another female protagonist in yet another unhealthy relationship for the fifth time this year or whatever and I was just like, No wonder I gave Olivia that speech. No wonder I'm looking for another narrative.

[garfeildfanpage]

Ok so on the topic of headcanons, I know I haven’t mentioned it yet but Terukane has been a gruesome infection in my brain for over 3 years now, and it’s about time I let the brain worms breathe

Terukane infested their way into my brain mostly because they both just so happen to be my favorite type of character design and character archetype (middle part and glasses / absolute wet cat of a man) so them also having a dynamic that makes me both very ill and also jump for joy is (to me) a combo made in heaven.

But I’m picky, especially picky with characterization in fan fiction. And I’m glad that most fics of them are written by people who understand how they behave in-series. Though my biggest fault may be that I love to write but hate the act of writing, so every idea I have is forever locked away in my noggin, I can attempt to get out something here.

Quick note I’m not a weirdo so don’t think I mean anything in any weird way at all, if you do I’ll eat your family. Okay? Okay.

Smitten Teru is probably my favorite out of any characterization of the two, just because I love how it can either be mindrottingly sweet or just ,sad, personally I love going the “kicking feet and giggling” route but both are great in their own regard.

It also might just be that I can’t really see Akane behaving the way he does for Aoi to Teru, a lot of people just kind of move Akane’s unhealthy attachment issues to him without understanding why Akane behaves like that around Aoi in the first place. (I have a whole thing about that) So it’s refreshing to have him, like, not do that.

To add onto that: aloof/repress feelings as hard as possible Akane totally rocks, and I love seeing it. Especially with the “why in the FUCK would I have LIKE someone like that??” kinda shit, rocks me, love it, can’t get enough. God it’s like the only time where cheesy relationship junk doesn’t give me second hand embarrassment, cause like they’re both so unbelievably stupid at relationships, and watching them be awkward and terrible at it really alleviates the whole existential life-or-death stuff happening in the actual manga. Losers in love kills me, and they are just that. GOD I WANT TO THROW THEM OFF A RAVINE

Also, I know a lot of fan fiction does this, but it’s never to the degree that I wish it was. Flustered/embarrassed teru kills me. It always kills me in anything when he just acts like a normal person, just like, expressing normal people emotions but because he’s so repressed it just like kills him. GOD I went through like a six month period of not crying and the moment I did again it felt like I got hit by a bus, could not IMAGINE barely ever crying my whole damn life. A good hard cry, that’s what he needs.

Anyway, I think that’s enough, if I let the brain worms out anymore they’ll form a union and force me to pay them more. Ninja out

[eggsploded]

moar you say.. why then gregor and rodya of coarse....

where would i be without rodigor. where would WE be, without rodigor.

first impression: THE fuckin guy. this dude owns. (insert 50 invasive questions about cockroach anatomy and behavior) i was peeved his roach arm resembled more of a beetle horn than a arm

current impression: when chef greg dropped i got so horny i went to bed lightheaded i still love gregor dearly but my love for him has mellowed like the fondness for a favorite pasta dish.

favorite moment: literally every old fart moment he has. when he forgets names when he berated sinclair for not cleaning his plate when he goes uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh in his dialogue because he doesnt know where hes going with this

story idea: despite his deep frying and boiling during hells chicken i think the bus kinda Likes this guy. gregors a bit of a hot commodity. hes just a fella you can Jive with. a real Stand Up guy. now let him be loved, if obliviously through his own self consciousness. a friendly heathcliff rough slap on the back delays his depressive episode by 15 minutes

fav relationship: oh boy where to start!!!! rodigor. enough on that. meurgreg, not really romantic to me but i like the art of it that is. it revolves around a big fella carrying him under his arm so automatic slay. ive seen a little gregcliff action on the TL but its more of a 'work got me friends with people twice my age like whats uncle greg up to' ordeal to me. now lets get insane. gregsang is incredible to me because yi sang is the only mf on that bus EASIER than gregor. gregor got game? that hes aware of? while stuttering the whole journey? its kind of crazy. i dont actually have a reason why they would even like eachother yet but put rodya in there somewhere to toy with them if you want true crackshipping fun

fav headcanon: hes a little chunky

RODYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my favit

first impression: me furiously searching for her height on the wiki + nodding my head sagely deciding woman with sleepy eyes is peak character design (faust included). i trust her wholeheartedly even if she leads me hand in hand into a woodchipper

current impression: waiting for projmoon to drop more lore on her desperately because i know canto 2 wasnt everything. i feel a disconnect with the fanbase about her because i see rodya characterized sooooo differently than how i think of her. the gambling thing and her effortless confidence for example isnt really questioned like how it is with dons bravado. i see her gambling as an outlet for her complicated views on money. she feels as though being financially 'secure' as the lone survivor as a betrayal to all the deaths she caused. gambling not only aligns with her current im the hottest shit attitude but also is a way for her to not be responsible for money. the hoarding of wealth is what caused her community to starve, why would she want to do something that seems to harm others? shes very self destructive, and feigning as slots star is just one of the ways she forces herself to 'stay in the cold'. ummmmmmmmm anyway im really normal about rodya and think about her a normal amount also her love for decadant food really resonates with me as someone who was poor in childhood because the difference between eating to live and living to eat is Astronomical

favorite moment: shes started branching out and calling other people than greg pet names and it is so exciting. faust has now reached babe status!! good for her!!! also when she infantalizes sinclair its terrible for him but REALLY funny for me when he responds back and reminds her oh right this is a 22 year old man. also her random interjections that are socialist ideology are really funny because they always feel so fucking random and like projmoon is remembering why crime and punishment was written and going drop this bomb ass line itll go so hard guys

story idea: i want her to play poker against yi sang because hes weird and also his poker face is like. genuine and dear adoration for being able to play with his companions because deep in his soul is gardens and butterflies. she would be so freaked out not only because this guy agreed to playing poker but also because he is invasively (he didnt mean it) staring into her SOUL to find solutions

fav relationship: my thoughts are half the bus are in love with gregor and the other half with rodya with cases of overlap. rodya is so epic because shes seemingly got it together to the more deranged sinners but to anyone else its like oh my god this paper mache bitch the former being more faustish the latter being more ryoshuish. faustya is cute because faust initially wanted to absorb more Bad Bitch Strategems and then kinda got a crush and is hardcore malfunctioning also kurokumo ryodion got sumn GOING yall crazy love is love though

fav headcanon: shes actually really short for Lobotomy Corp Backstreets Russia and everyone there is just freakishly tall (see: sonya)

[lorde-taciturno]

Enough time has passed so i wanna talk about it The best scene in Kamen Rider Gotchard so far Exactly, the Meaty Cream Puff scene

I know, you know, we all know, the scene per se is unimportant, the acting is tacky, the dialogue is a bit off... Technically not the greatest of the scenes in the franchise but yet it is my favorite scene in this series. Why? I'm glad you asked, i love talking my hyperfoci. First, context: The scene follows a warming moment between Houtaro and Rinne when our little treasure conforts the genious girl after a cronfotation that opened scars in the girl resolution to follow rules.

A good scene that show how empatic Houtaro is to his friend, and adds to the theme of the episode: Is following the rules synonymous with doing the right thing? Then, the cerberus Malgan atacks and Kajiki, of course is Kajiki, posts of it on the internet. As a result, two interactions are interrupted. First, Renge is working in the Ichinose Kitchen when Sabi calls for her:

See how she confuses Sabi's nickname to the Sabe from saba miso? That's a great pun. It's human! It's a mistake that you can see yourself doing, it's so freaking natural! Following this, Sabi calls for Houtaro and Rinne, warning them about the monster right after the poor girl had been subjected to Houtaro's newest culinary monstrosity:

This scene has all! It brings back a character trait of Houtaro and puts Rinne to react to it, initially weirded out knowing the boy has make something terrible again and still trying it to politely say it's bad. The direction is also funny, playing with the camera and the characters' expressions very well. But why these scenes are so great to me? Why i like this simple interactions so much? BECAUSE THEY WERE INTERRUPTED! Both scenes shows that while protecting people and defeating monsters are our heros priority, they're not doing it 24/7. Renge is working with Houtaro's mon, either for the money, or to thank her for letting them stay there playing rebellious clandestine alchemists, Houtaro and Rinne are living their normal school life, the boy is still trying to make the perfect weird dish or whatever, the girl is still confronted with her friend's bad food on a daily basis. The life is still hapenning despite the plot! They are eating, working, studying, cooking... THEY ARE LIVING! And then! It's interrupted because a monster invades their daily life. The four kids rush to action... and the gags continues:

The monster who was obssed with food every time it appeared in the episode tries Houtaro food! The kids atenction are dragged to it, Rinne glances at her friend that can't take his eyes for the events that unfold... and the monster toss the food out cause even it can't take the boy's food.

The boy is heartbroken. It doesn't get better when he realises that rinne is silently agreeing in the background, making him shout of frustration while transforming to fight. This, my loved friends, is absolute cinema. This kind of characterization, this small moments, can do SO MUCH for this charcters! You empathize with Rinne when she is forced to agree with the monster that the food isn't the best, you feel sorry for Houtaro when even your friend agrees with a meat-obsessed monster about his cooking, you laugh with complicity when Renge gets Sabi's name wrong because of the dish she just delivered! These characters are suddenly humanized before your eyes! They are no more just characters, they're humans, they're friends, they are flawed, they are lovable. Gotchard 19 is my favorite episode so far, i loved Akiko-sensei writing and hope she comes back to the series soon!

[zlobonessa]

well since the coup thing here just kinda sorta ended i guess i think this is as good time as ever to tell yall about my silly little modern au because why the hell not. i had this au for a while as a source for jokes but it just kept growing and growing untill. well I'm actually writing fic about (parts of) this but again it's in russian so i just want to outline the ideas. this is totally went off the rails but i like it that way

so

the catalyst of all is regurein of course

i have several variations of why the hell are they dating but one of my favourites is the one where they engage in passionate fight about twilight saga on the internet

joke about twilight saga belongs to koa. thanks koa.

the second favourite is about coffeeshop au set in two rivaling coffeeshops with questionable work practices and with money laundering probably happening in the background (or something worse?) of one of them

but anyway

reinhard's friends are taking the news very well

which means they are not, in fact, taking the news very well

julius is heartbroken

he has that wlw experience where your infinitely pretty incredibly smart unimaginably cool friend (homoerotic undertone) starts dating a guy who can be characterized only as Human Garbage

out of Friendly Concerns he and the others start the secret operation of Breaking Your Best Friend Relationships

they are not very successful

observing disgustingly sweet and/or horrifying dates with binoculars from the bushes does not bring any results

ferris suggested poisoning several times already

somewhere along the line felt is involved

she is neither the participant nor regurein's matchmaker but a secret third thing

(not entertained by any of this bullshit but forced to observe it)

probably is blackmailing julius

lye is also here

he is tagging along with regulus for some reasons idk i never thought it through

he and felt form unexpected friendship based on common annoyance of being forced to third wheel all this mess

perhaps they start the punk rock band???

the music is terrible

joshua thinks soo too

yes he is also here

he desperatly pretends to be a big fan

that's his late teenage rebellion

felt and lye do not like him anyway but it's not like they have a lot of fans so they keep him to buy them alcohol or something

when julius finds out he almost has a heart attack

and also regulus had some malicious plan all along! oh no!

but oh well he is not the smartest guy yknow

certainly NOT GOOD with being subtle

also has very Weird relationships with feelings

and accidentally catches them for reinhard for real

his mental stability: destroyed

but it's fine and reinhard keeps him anyway because he is absolutely bonkers

again julius is very close to an emergency room

but also in the (failed) attempt to stop this shitshow he Finds His True Love

emijulisuba happens! yay

bonded by spying and perhaps discussion ls of common crush on reinhard

so it's fine. it's totally fine. it's so fine he swears.

IN THE MEANTIME

the subplot happens. it involves wilhelm.

reinhard informs him that he has a boyfriend and plans to introduce him at the family dinner. in the desparate attempt to repair their broken relationships wilhelm decides that it's time to be An Ally

i'm giving him a lot of credit here but that's also a bit of copium for Me Personally so it's okay

so wilhelm googles "who are.gay people"

accidentally ends up on gay dating app

as an ally

matches with petelgeuse there

as an ally

has sex with him

as an ally

tries to think how exactly he is gonna tell reinhard that he has a new grandma now so he is forgiven

(that was a joke)

so reinhard comes to the manor/apartment/penthouse with regulus

and regulus and petelgeuse recognise each other because of course they do! they are colleagues! (or were something more? who know)

well now this is awkward

do you think somebody gets murdered here

credits roll

scene after credits: emilia finds out that her dead aunt and her somewhat-uncle who went out for milk years ago are actually both alive in complicated relationship and working in the coffeeshop-slash-money-laundering-scheme-slash-sect

[thetriggeredhappy]

Bit of a broad question, but: do you have any tips on writing the mercs?

broad question means broad answer, pal, hope you like essays.

the unfortunate, terrible truth is that the best way to get better at writing the tf2 mercenaries… is to get better at writing in general. picking up new skills means having more skills to apply, especially in the sense that the tf2 universe’s fanworks can be pretty much any genre you want. i’ve personally written mystery, romance, comedy, drama, slice-of-life, sitcom-esque, and that’s just the ones i can think of. and believe it or not, different genres require completely different skills.

characterization is obviously one thing people struggle with a lot, and my suggestion would be to try moving away from the “incorrect quotes” method of characterization. trying to slot characters into specific tropes can be really limiting, and ultimately doesn’t actually encourage you to get creative with them, it encourages you to follow genre conventions. sometimes that’s good, but it doesn’t help you write any better or understand genre conventions any better in the long run. security blankets are important in any hobby, but that’s the first one i would let go of when you start writing your own stuff.

firstly, free yourself of the concept of one singular characterization. change details. in one universe have heavy talk about how good his relationship with his father was; in another, have him say he doesn’t remember a single thing about him. in one universe the engineer learned most of the things he knows from apprenticing; in another he only started in on practical application when he got to Mann Co. it’s fine. nobody minds. seriously, nobody minds. and moreover, orbiting around the canon details and changing the ones you’re forced to invent whenever you write them will keep the characters fresh for you, and you’ll learn a lot about how to work in weird details; what comes up organically? how do you bring something up in a way that seems natural before that information is absolutely necessary? for example, could you include a detail about pyro not knowing how to swim that comes across naturally and organically so that later on in a scene taking place near the water, it doesn’t feel sudden and contrived to make pyro scared of the water?

secondly, get used to actively considering certain character details. what is scout’s relationship with money? what is demo’s relationship with the concept of a family name? what is sniper’s relationship with the concept of nature vs nurture? consider the more noteworthy aspects of any given merc’s character; why does it stand out? what made them this way? in what circumstance would they break from that behavior or aspect of themselves? in what circumstance would this aspect of them prove useful? how would the mercs describe each other?

some people make character playlists, either with songs they think apply to that character or music that character would like. some people just read a lot of fic and bookmark the ones they like the best to use as references when writing their own (which is fine, by the way. i borrowed a lot of details and concepts from other writers when coming up with some characterizations i use near-constantly). being a bit of a nerd, i’ve taken an approach sometimes where i read personality quizzes or those “oc questions” lists and try to consider how i think that character would answer, which is really helpful for me. but by far the thing that most consistently helps me write characters is writing them. i have literally thousands of words dedicated to writing characters in funny little situations. the engineer talking scout through changing a tire. spy chewing medic out over him being snappy with people. demo trying home remedies for a cold. soldier going through his morning routine. i can assure you, they’re all completely unreadable. they’re boring and uninteresting and contrived, and i learned a lot from writing them. i’ve also made a practice of taking requests—writing five hundred words for a request on tumblr of something extremely simple will do a very important thing called Making You Write. writing is the hard part of writing. the more you write, the easier it gets, and getting into the habit of writing is like taking up exercising, sometimes. important but annoying.

how do you write the mercs. honestly, it’s just that i have practice writing in general. write and then write some more. if you’re having trouble with their speech patterns, try playing stenographer, writing out the script for their meet the team videos. imagine them on a talk show, or an interview. who are they more polite with, and more rude with? writing the mercs feels like memorizing the fuckin’ pokémon type chart sometimes, if i’m honest. i imagine sniper is quiet, unless he has something important to say, and except when arguing with spy, except i think he would argue less in front of other people, except for scout and pyro who take his side, but scout probably wouldn’t start shit in front of the engineer, and pyro would be more calm if around someone they like. have them react to each other. consider what they expect each other to be like, and how they would feel if proven wrong, either disappointed or pleasantly surprised.

make them gossip. make them argue about what is and is not technically a fish. make them get annoyed about each other’s eating habits. make them make bets. my greatest piece of advice that i’ll insist on is to write characters like they’re human beings first. maybe up to some sitcom antics or ridiculous nonsense, but i think everyone on the planet is capable of becoming extremely stupid and hilarious if pressed far enough, so press these characters far enough. make them have to go ask for no pickles. make them have to figure out what to do when the takeout place is closed and they have like no food in the base. make them embarrassed. make them hyped. make them sad enough that they reconsider everything they’re doing. make them happy enough that they find some kind of peace. where are their limits, their boundaries, their standards?

it doesn’t necessarily just apply to the mercs, it applies to writing anything. write some stuff and then write some more different stuff. show people your stuff. try to write some stuff you don’t feel super confident about and then write it eight more times and then the time after that when you write it, show it to people.

i’m not one of those “you have to write every day” people, because that’s a surefire way to lose aspiring authors to burnout, but i do encourage self-indulgence. i’ll have a bad day and feel sad, and i’ll write someone being sad. i’ll be struggling with some aspect of myself and i’ll write similar turmoil. i’ll hate something, and write about it. i’ll love something, and write about it. write whatever you want, until you want to write reflexively, and then soon you’ll be writing things even if you don’t feel like writing, and you’ll only get better from there. you might end up writing every day, which sometimes just means rereading something you did and editing for typos. i write almost every day, in that regard, even if most of it never sees the light of day. for every hundred words i’ve posted, i’ve written three hundred and never shown anyone, and that’s not an exaggeration.

here’s a secret they don’t tell you in any writing class i’ve ever been in: you don’t have to show anyone. it’s alright. just share what you’re happy with, and only if you want to, and only to the people you want to; you don’t need to post it online, you can just send a google doc to three of your friends, it’s fine. sharing will feel nice at times, though. share to justify the amount of time sunk into a project, or to justify the stress, or to justify “well i already posted it so no editing now!”. write some stuff just because you’ll want to reread it later. i have a number of things i’ve written for the express purpose of it helping to calm me down when my anxiety starts spiraling particularly badly. running blind was a writing exercise in limiting my overuse of visual descriptions. persistence was an exercise in writing a character in turmoil from outside of that character’s mind, instead from a different point of view. try writing in an author’s style that you admire. i’ve taken inspiration in writing from Letterkenny and Douglas Adams, in particular, sometimes pretty directly trying to mirror their mannerisms. also sometimes The Stanley Parable, in my narration style. it’s good for you, go on. plagiarize in the privacy of your own home then bring the skills it teaches you with you when you go to write something else. nobody will notice. nobody will go “hey wait a minute, your ability to write tone-neutral humorous third person narration comes from reading A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and internalizing it, you picked up on writing both subtle and non-subtle symbolism and cheesy overly-genuine sentimental shit from reading Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques (and others in the series), you watched a lot of sitcoms in your youth and model back and forth dialogues after them, and you think dry humor is funny because you watch a lot of twitch streamers who use it”. they’ll just call you gay and neurodivergent. which they should’ve known based on the fact that you’re writing team fortress 2 fanfiction but whatever

i’m running out of helpful advice. all my advice can be replaced by just writing more and reading more and writing more again. probably reread and rewatch the canonical content every once and a while to make sure you’re touching base and not making OCs, because if you’re gonna make an OC, go play a tabletop roleplaying game with them or write your own book or something, don’t use them on fanfiction, they can get so much more mileage out of being used somewhere else and you’ll be glad you did it. or do make fic for them and tag it as OC content! the OC creators in the tf2 fandom are, in my experience, all super sweet super nice people who love making new friends! make your OCs rivals with theirs idk it’ll be great

hope literally any of that helps. i should really get a tag for my writing advice. maybe someday

[deuterosapiens]

Can Gavin be more perfect, and clueless?

So Gavin goes away to learn how to dress like a human, from a trio who should in all seriousness be a last resort. Where's Jessie in this? She would have been excellent for this job! Her and Dominique would have had a field day with this clueless man!

I digress.

Since we've sort of slipped away from feelings a bit, you know what Carter and his brothers do while Gavin is being brutally tormented and taught terrible habits? Have feelings. Which unfortunately meant I too got to have feelings. Aren't feelings fun?

The long and short of Feelings Time is that all three of them have grown to very heavily develop complicated opinions of their father. Joe's feelings are, well, to be expected, but I'm glad he got to express how much he feels like a third wheel to the Tether Bros. Carter got to apologize for his guilt at being responsible for Richard taking Joe in the first place. Kelly got to... be there while the other two worked out some stuff they needed to work out.

Seriously, I don't think Kelly actually gets as much out of this moment as the other two.

Then things get weird. Like, can someone with a digital version do a little Ctrl+F for me the number of times the word "penis" is used in this book? Is it "Drinking Game" numbers? It feels like "Drinking Game" numbers. This entire conversation was weird. I cannot imagine having a conversation like this with either of my sisters. These boys have no boundaries.

There's a wonderful moment in Deathly Hallows-Part One that's not in the book, and exists exclusively as a deleted scene between Petunia and Harry that makes no damn sense with her characterization that I actually like a lot where she reminds him that he didn't just lose a mother that night in Godric's Hollow, she lost a sister. Carter has a roles-reversed version of this moment with Mark that I found very sweet, and honestly, necessary. After all, they spend so much time about Thomas being their father, or Elizabeth's mate, but no one really bothers to have the decency to remember he was Mark's brother before any of that. I apologize for referencing Harry Potter as a jumping-off analog for this point; likely won't happen again.

And Gavin's back!, before we all get too feelings-y.

I now have a very specific mental image of this man that I'm very glad I have no artistic talent to speak of because I would be forced to draw this mental image for you guys and I would prefer to take this mental image with me to my grave. Can I just Inkheart myself into this book, you know, for a bit? No reason. No reason at all...

[popculturebuffet]

Next up for Disney TVA, who is your favorite character from the cartoons in the second half of the Disney Afternoon era (1993-96): Marsupilami, Aladdin the Series, Gargoyles, The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show, Timon & Pumbaa, Quack Pack, and Mighty Ducks the Animated Series? Skipped Bonkers since you said in the last ask that you haven't seen it yet.

Okay so getting this out of the way again (And yup haven't seen bonkers) So in addition to bonkers Marsupliami (though ti looks good and snookums and meat . Aladdin the Animated Series: No faviorite as I've only seen maybe one episode in recent years , but I do hear it's a fun adventure show and remmeber it being okay as a kid. never realized as a kid the two dtv movies werne't their own movies but the pilot for the show and it's finale respectivley (both still stand find on their own and return has if nothing else I can remmeber your only second rate)

Gargoyles: I LIVE AGAIN! I really need to watch this series in full at some point.. honestly reviewing it might not be a terrible idea as it'd at least get me around to it. I'll figure it out. Faviorite is Xanatos. Even just READING about him I loved the guy, a villian so damn good at gambits tv tropes named it after him and whose clever as he is self serving. The show itself is again one I BADLY need to watch as i've only seen a few scattered episode but the one that sticks in my mind I Had on vhs in high school, Deadly Force sticks out. It handles gun saftey.. in a way that dosen't feel hackned or over the top. Elsa gets shot.. but she made the mistake of leaving her gun unmprotected and apparently the show is consitent in making sure she never does again. IT's a show with a deep intretsing mythos, voice acting royalty, and is worth a look. Again I wouldn't mind doing a retrospective at some point (Splitting season 2 up a bit ) covering the first two seasons, the slave labor graphics comics and the recent revivial comics following up on those. Not plugging there either I just think gargoyles is neat. It's disney's equilvent to batman the aniamted series in my mind and it's a shame they never really captlized on it

Timon and Pummba: Only seen some of this for a review, it seems.. okay. Not terrible by any means but nothing I really want to watch despite loving these two characters.

Quack Pack: Daisy whose redesign while attractive is also fun and is that nice sweet spot of being fed up with donalds shit sometimes but not you know cheating on him, abusing him or everything three cabs daisy did. Don't be three cabs daisy folks. The show itself i've only seen a few eps of, some for reviews some on my own time but honestly.. it's okay. It has a reptuation for being awful, for being garbage that brought down the whole disney afternoon.... but really.. it's fine. I think a lot of people raging against it forget that donald getting into domestic scraps is just as much a par tof his dientity as donald duck the greatest adventuerer who ever lived. most of his shorts come from some small incident such as his car breaking down, a raido cooking show or his cousin showing up to eat everything he has. So going back to that with a bit of advneture weirdness ocasionally thrown in seems fine. Some plots do sound.. insane but the show seems okay. The versions of the boys.. are a bit weaker but it's less for characterization (thier about the same as they were in ducktales just older) , and more for trying to make them sound cool and that despite giving them unique va's.. they didn't do much in the ones i've seen to actually defenrtaite them. And honestly the redesigns are solid

Daisy and Donalds are great an dth eboys are fine. Their hair and Louie's backwards hat are 90s as hell but honetsly they aren't half bad and now I think about it dewey's would perfectly fit the 2017's dewey's love of attention and need to be seen as a jock. The show is far from perfect and some episodes seem nuts again like Huey's dental surgery turning him into a super villian.. but overall it's just fine. Not super mediocre, but not as bad as it gets a rep for. Also the humans thing... eh why not. I prefer an all furry universe, but I get Donald has interacted with humans before.

Mighty Ducks: One I haven't revisited and don't really.. intend to. It's a weird piece of the duckverse, with aliens, 90's super powers and hockey. I might check it out for the novelty as I have gained a love of hockey due to certain canadian television series

But otherwise it's just kinda.. there. There are other 90's action shows to visit. Gargoyles is just down the block. BTAS exists. I just really.. dont' care.

[5blondeboytoy5]

Also sdv LIs ranked :)

okay strap in i’ve got opinions

separating by m vs f i lean m and can’t compare some of them yknow? i’ll let you know my fave and least fave

men…

1. SAAAAAAAM my darling dearest light of my life fire of my loins samson my absolute favorite beloved number one man i love you i love you i love you… every love song i listen to i think of samson i have playlists named after him i have aus constructed around him i am incredibly unhealthily obsessed with him he is in every universe he is love we have two kids and they’re both named he’s so sweet and i want to save him

2. sebastian, god he’s so losercore patheticcore disgustingcore i love his entire vibe. i know ive jokes about him and sam being different versions of whit/kylar but while i think you have to bend and dig deep into sam to make him a bully like whitney (which i think sam could easily be characterized as a troublemaker i digress) seb is one hot bitch moving to the valley away from being a disgusting stalker that jerks off with your panties and peeks in through your window i love him he’s such a loser and i don’t want to save him

3. alex, i know he’s the most unpopular bachelor but i really think he’s just trying his best - I KNOW I KNOW there’s some icky lines from him but there’s something so endearing about him… he reminds me of kevin from daria, he’s so simple and i know he just thinks with his dick

4. elliott, he’s fine, solid 5/10 like i understand the appeal to him - he’s romantic, and sweet, and dreamy, but he’s not for me. but again i see why people like him

5. harvey…. kinda the same reason as avery/eden in the prev ask im not into older men and he’s clearly in his 40s…. he’s just boring i just don’t quite see him but im not a hater toward him

6. shane. now, yknow elliott and harvey aren’t for me but im not an elliott/harvey hater. I AM A SHANE HATER FOREVER hes ugly and old and stinky and i know he’s flawed and you can save him but i take so many issues with his character like….i know alcoholism is a disease and addiction is terrible and all that but the fact that he has legal custody of jas and continues to drink and throw his life away and force marnie into raising her EVEN AFTER HES SOBER AND LIVING WITH THE PLAYER and idk. i just do not vibe with fucking an alcoholic parent and i think haley gets so much shit for being mean and shane gets away with it scot free. i just do not like him at all and i wouldn’t hate him half as much if he wasn’t the most popular bachelor. fuck shane all my homies hate shane

now onto the women…..just a preface i like all of them pretty much ???? like think of them all above elliott in my ranking because i think they’re all lovely

1. EMILYYYYY SWEET SPACEY AQUARIUS GIRL (in my heart) i love a weird girl i love how esoteric her heart events are also i sew too and so does she….she’s the bachelorette i identify most with and i love love love love love her

2. abigail….i can’t not. the ass gang is so near and dear to my heart they’re the stupid shithead friends you make in high school in your stupid podunk town and i just. god she’s such a cool girl….but i love her more in a best friend way than in a make out with me way

3. haley… i just love her vibes and i think her development is a lot more interesting and also is a victim of misogyny…. i just feel like her narrative is so different as a girl character because to me haley is unlearning internalized misogyny and learning how to be understanding and loving

4. maru… i love a dorky nerdy girlie in stem and i love the dynamic between her and seb (which is how ive mostly experienced her mostly) and how interesting their family dynamic is. anyway, maru is the friend i made in my honors classes in school but we had nothing in common but she’s so sweet and nice that i stick by her side

5. penny, the other bachelorette i relate the most to (i work childcare irl) and i think her and pam and their dynamic with alcoholism is infinitely more interesting than shane. but, i feel like penny is just….too delicate and domestic i want so much good for this girl

6. leah - no hate! no hate fr! i just never ever see her because she’s always in her cabin! but also i love her because she’s artsy and cute but i just don’t know her like that!